PreK Bits - "N" is for NEIGHBORHOOD

Wed, 06/21/2017 - 3:46pm by ryanikoglu

Ms. Rachel told neighborhood stories in Preschool Storytime.
The BIG ORANGE SPLOT is a classic by Daniel Pinkwater about how folks feel about their houses.
GOLLY GUMP SWALLOWED A FLY by Joanna Cole must be borrowed through MelCat. It is a silly fantastical story about a rural boy who keeps swallowing things in his neighborhood, which is his farm.
A similar story is I KNOW AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FLY. Then there is the song “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” which is sung on the
DVD The WHEELS ON The BUS: And More Singalong favorites and on the
CD TOM GLAZER SINGS HONK-HISS-TWEET-GGGGGG and Other Children’s Favorites.
For clapping action and rhyme we did “Dr. Knickerbocker” and got the rhythm going in different parts of the body. You can find versions of this rhyme on the
CD SINGING ALL The WAY HOME and the
CD LITTLE PEOPLE COUNTING SONGS.

For more NEIGHBORHOOD stories try these favorites:
SUGAR HILL: Harlem’s Historic Neighborhood … an historic neighborhood.
MAYBE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL: How Art Transformed A Neighborhood
A GOOD NIGHT WALK … around the neighborhood at dusk.
KNUFFLE BUNNY: A Cautionary Tale … of loss and reunion.
SOMETHING ABOUT HENSLEY’S … the neighborhood shop.
GREEN IS A CHILI PEPPER: A Book Of Colors ... through an hispanic neighborhood.
CHESTER’S WAY … a story about old friends and new friends in the neighborhood.

How to Be a Muslim: An American Story - Memoir by Haroon Moghul

Tue, 06/20/2017 - 1:11pm by sairah513

Memoir is a “tricky genre to review”, asserted Roxane Gay during an author event for her most recent title Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body at Ann Arbor’s Hill Auditorium this past Friday.

Agreed.

Usually...

However, Haroon Moghul so creatively crafts his story that there were no tricks for me in this writing. Moghul’s memoir How to be a Muslim: An American Story artfully weaves insightful personal reflection on faith, leadership, and bipolar disorder with dry hilarity and punny chapter titles that are often nods to the musical magic of Green Day, Cat Stevens, and Jay-Z. The book makes for an emotional rollercoaster of a read as Moghul deftly describes his struggle with his two selves: the outer, public figure Haroon who was “thrust into the spotlight” as an NYU campus leader post-9/11, and the inner, personally and spiritually tormented Haroon vacillating between“amateur atheism” and God-consciousness.

Moghul addresses themes such as hypocrisy, the spectrum of mental health, bigamy, and monogamy in wildly entertaining and thought-provoking ways. Free of tired, apologetic “Intro-to-Islam” tropes, Moghul instead relies on the religious/spiritual and philosophical framework of poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, who wrestled with Islam and the West as well as the “self” and society prior to the decisiveness of the 9/11 moment. Indeed the amorphous unit that is popularly perceived of as the “Muslim World” experienced dissonance, along with richness and cosmopolitanism prior to that moment.

Any child of the 90’s will appreciate Moghul’s apropos references to the decade’s sartorial sensibilities (JNCO jeans, anyone?) and the memorable music of Mariah Carey. Besides suggesting to read Moghul’s reference A First-Rate Madness by Nasser Ghaemi, I cannot provide a reader advisory, “If you like ‘x’, you’ll also like ‘y’” because this book occupies a place of its own. Read it.

New from Arundhati Roy

Mon, 06/19/2017 - 8:02am by potterbee

Twenty years ago, the Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things hit the shelves and has remained in demand ever since. In the years since then, Arundhati Roy has published dozens of essays and non-fiction work, made documentaries, protested against government corruption, Hindu nationalism, environmental degradation and inequality, campaigned for Kashmiri independence, Maoist rebels and indigenous land rights, and was featured on Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. To her political fans, she is the radical left voice of principled resistance; to her critics, the worst sort of adolescent idealist: unrealistic and self-indulgent. She has faced criminal charges of contempt and sedition, been imprisoned, and fled India briefly last year in fear for her life. She has not, until now, published another word of fiction.

Available this summer is a new novel from author Arundhati Roy titled The ministry of utmost happiness. This new work of literary fiction is highly anticipated. While noted as a challenging read, Roy's prosaic style is highly praised for embracing in a way that sweeps you through the story.

The complexity of Roy's writing allows for more than one thread in the story which begins with Anjum, born intersex and raised as a male. Later, she moves from her childhood home in Delhi to the nearby House of Dreams, choosing to live among a group of Hijras, transgendered women with a long, marginalized history in India. Finally, when this home fails her, she builds a home for herself in a city graveyard, where the tale begins.

The other major narrative thread concerns an unorthodox South Indian woman named Tilo. “She gave the impression that she had somehow slipped off her leash,” observes a friend. “As though she was taking herself for a walk while the rest of us were being walked — like pets.” Tilo studies architecture in Delhi in the 1980s and through a beloved college classmate, Musa, is caught up in the long, violent struggle for independence in the disputed northern territory of Kashmir.

"Shifting fluidly between moods and time frames, Roy juxtaposes first-person and omniscient narration with "found" documents to weave her characters' stories with India's social and political tensions, particularly the violent retaliations to Kashmir's long fight for self-rule. Sweeping, intricate, and sometimes densely topical, the novel can be a challenging read. Yet its complexity feels essential to Roy's vision of a bewilderingly beautiful, contradictory, and broken world." - Publisher's Weekly Review

“Roy’s novel will be the unmissable literary read of the summer. With its insights into human nature, its memorable characters and its luscious prose, Ministry is well worth the wait.” –Sarah Begley, TIME

Reader's may enjoy this interview with John Cusak from November 2015, about her popular non-fiction book, Things that can and cannot be said while you await your copy!

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #642, Spotlight on Women's Fiction

Fri, 06/16/2017 - 11:01pm by muffy

The Garden of Small Beginnings * by Abbi Waxman is a story of loss but also the joy of second chances.

It has been three year since Lilian watched her husband died in a car accident 50 feet from her front door. After a breakdown and hospitalization, she is back at her job as a textbook illustrator in a small LA publishing house, and making a life with her two young daughters, Annabel and Clare.

With the industry downturn, she could save the company by branching out to illustrate a new series on vegetable gardening. Having agreed to take a 6-weeks Saturday morning gardening class with the author, Edward Bloem, "(m)any life lessons are learned in the garden, and not just by Lilian."

"The plot is straightforward, but it is Waxman’s skill at characterization that lifts this novel far above being just another "widow finds love” story. Clearly an observer, Waxman has mastered the fine art of dialogue as well. Characters ring true right down to Lilian’s two daughters, who often steal the show." (Kirkus Review)

For readers who are charmed by such titles as Good Grief, Heat Wave; Lost Lake, and recent debuts like Happy People Read & Drink Coffee and Angelina's Bachelors.

Gail Honeyman's debut Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine * is a "smart, warm, uplifting" story about a young woman's journey toward wholeness.

Scarred inside and out, 29 year-old Eleanor aspires to be unremarkable and normal all her adult life. An accounting clerk at a small Glasgow graphic design firm, her lack of social skills makes her the butt of office jokes. She finds comfort in strict routines, solitude, copious amount of vodka on the weekends, and will insist to all who care to inquire that she is "completely fine".

Almost simultaneously Eleanor falls for a gorgeous, out-of-her-league bar singer and begins an almost frenzied (and hilarious) self-improvement program, while striking up a tentative friendship with Raymond, the slovenly IT guy after they saved Sammy, an elderly retired postal clerk on the street. The three become the kind of friends who rescue each other from the lives of isolation, and it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

"Walking in Eleanor’s practical black Velcro shoes is delightfully amusing, her prudish observations leavened with a privately puckish humor. But readers will also be drawn in by her tragic backstory, which slowly reveals how she came to be so entirely Eleanor. Witty, charming, and heartwarming." (Booklist)

For readers of Jojo Moyes and Helen Simonson.

* = Starred review

Badge Drop #1: Summer Game 2017 ARRIVES IN STYLE!!!

Fri, 06/16/2017 - 7:22pm by nicole

There's something to be said for being FASHIONABLY LATE, don't you think? Up here at Summer Game HQ we usually take our PUNCTUALITY pretty seriously. ON THE DOT? We INVENTED the phrase! RIGHT ON TIME? That's a thing people say to us with ALMOST NO SARCASM on a SEMI-REGULAR BASIS! TARDY? WHAT EVEN IS THAT? Is it a snack, a drink, an app--how could we POSSIBLY know when we're ALWAYS SO ON TIME!!!

But there's just something COOL and SLICK and STYLISH about making a GRAND, GRATUITOUSLY BEHIND-SCHEDULE entrance to a party...



...so SUMMER GAME 2017 is KICKING DOWN the door to this party at HALF-PAST NOT-QUITE-THE-RIGHT-TIME O'CLOCK!!!



We'll pick that up later. Right now it's time to pick up this other thing we're putting down: SOME FASTIDIOUS and FASHIONABLE BADGES!!

You've waited LONG ENOUGH and THERE THEY ARE, so get into it, gamers, and start digging for those POINTLESS FACTS so you can win those NOT-POINTLESS POINTS! If you're new to the Summer Game, head over to our Get Started page to get your feet wet!



Now off you go! You don't want to be LATE, do you??? Then start the clock and GO!!!!



THANKS FOR PLAYING!!!

Summer Game 2017 - Let's-a Go!

Fri, 06/16/2017 - 8:47am by andrewjmac

Okey-dokey, here we go! Time for SUMMER GAME 2017!!!



Time for codes and badges and points and reading and exploring and all around LIBRARYING EVERY WHICH WAY YOU CAN! This year's Summer Game is HOT-HOT-HOT with more things to do than ever! Wondering how you can get going? How about:



-Visit every AADL location and collect the copious codes! Westgate, Malletts Creek, Pittsfield, and Traverwood all have 10 codes hidden around the building, Downtown has 15 codes PLUS every building has a BIG code on the banner outside (all banners are going up as we speak)!



-Head to the AADL catalog and get tagging, rating, and reviewing everything you can think of!



-Leave a comment on any post on aadl.org (this one included)!



-Read books, watch movies, listen to music, anything at all! Remember, you get up to 1000 points a day for every minute/page you read, watch, or listen to! It all counts!



-Start getting started by starting with our GETTING STARTED series!

Ready to go? WAHOO!! If not--if you don't even have a clue what this Summer Game biz even Summer Game iz--don't worry! Head over to the Get Started page to learn how YOU can join in on the fun and start earning points to spend on AMAZING PRIZES in the Summer Game Shop opens in July!



Let's do this! Do your best to top the leaderboard! Number one! Hoho!



(By the way, this post has at least 8 quotes from a certain video game hero. If you're looking for another place to start your Summer Game, try searching the catalog for the solo outing he has coming out later this year!)



Thanks for playing! Way to GO!

Kids’ Summer Reading Lists!

Thu, 06/15/2017 - 1:31pm by manz

Summertime is here! The last day of school is upon us. The SUMMER GAME starts tomorrow! It’s time to grab some books to fill all your summer adventures.

Here are some 2017 summer reading lists that were compiled by Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) that cover a variety of ages and genres. Below are AADL public lists of them to make for easy browsing within our collection. Be sure to check out some of these great titles, everything from board books, picture books, fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels!!

Birth–Preschool Summer Reading List

Grades K–2 Summer Reading List

Grades 3–5 Summer Reading List

Grades 6–8 Summer Reading List

What's on the top of your reading list this summer?

The Bright Hour

Tue, 06/13/2017 - 3:31pm by Lucy S

Nina Riggs’ stunning memoir, The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying, was written in the last two years of her life. At the age of 37, with two young boys and a dying mother to care for, Riggs was diagnosed with breast cancer, “just a spot,” that accelerated rapidly to become terminal. This astonishingly moving, never maudlin book, is not filled with the sadness that one might expect to find in these circumstances, but instead is made up of episodes, small and large, presented to us in Riggs’ forthright and humored tone. Riggs, once a poet, writes of hours and days simply and eloquently, reminding us that these moments are the ones making up her life, no matter their content. This book is infused with anecdotes from the front lines of motherhood and marriage, which just happened to be peppered with “dispatches” from the world of a fast-moving cancer and its treatments. Riggs is no stranger to the disease. Her mother has been living with and dying from cancer for the past 8 years. As her mother passes her last days in hospice she relays her regrets for Riggs, that she (Riggs) had been nicer and seen a dentist more often. This pairing of the profound with the trifling details of everyday runs throughout Riggs’ memoir and lends itself to the poetry of Riggs’ words. “I’m terrified. I’m fine. The world is changed and exactly as before. There are crows in my hair. I have no hair.”

Riggs is brave to face cancer with as much acceptance and wit as she does. One wonders if some of her bravery stems from the precept passed down through generations by her great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “always do what you are afraid to do.” Riggs looks to, and sites, Emerson often, as well as the French philospher Michel de Montaigne, and finds comfort in their viewpoints toward the natural world, life, and death. There are moments though, when Riggs finds it difficult to summon courage and understanding, and they are heartbreaking, as when she thinks of leaving her children. “Their very existence is the one dark piece I cannot get right within all this. I can let go of a lot of things: plans, friends, career goals, places in the world I want to see, maybe even the love of my life. But I cannot figure out how to let go of mothering them.”

Also heartbreaking is that we will never get more writing from Riggs. This book reads as if she is in conversation with her reader, often in the present tense, imbued with humor and fine points, so that when it’s over we are left mourning the book’s conclusion as well as the life of its writer.

PreK Bits - "F" is for Foolish FROGGIES

Thu, 06/08/2017 - 12:21pm by ryanikoglu

It's time to feature froggy stories! Froggies are funny. They are fun to hear and watch. First-frogs-of-the-season time is near. We will soon hear spring peepers and croakers.

Ms. Rachel introduced GREEN FROGS thru MelCat loan. It is a Korean Folktale that explains why little children in Korea may be called "green frogs". Hint: It has something to do with "unruly".
We sang "5 Green And Speckled Frogs" ... a classic "counting and singing song" you can find on the CD LITTLE PEOPLE: Songs & Games For The Road.
The "Fireflies" song can be heard on the CD HAPPY AS CLAMS by Lena.
We discovered WHY The FROG HAS BIG EYES ... a "beginning Reader" folktale.
You may be able to read this one yourself if you have learned to read some words already.

For more froggy tales try these favorites:
Arnold Lobel Classic Readers ... with Frog & Toad
999 FROGS WAKE UP … in the springtime.
TOO MANY FROGS … at bedtime.
QUENTIN BLAKE’S TEN FROGS = DIEZ RANAS … counting in Spanish.
QUENTIN BLAKE’S TEN FROGS = DIS GRENOUILLE … counting in French.
I DON’T WANT TO BE A FROG … being green gets old.
The CROAKY POKEY … dance your froggy parts to Hokey Pokey!
TUESDAY … a frog fantasy that won the Caldecott Award for illustrations in 1992.

Seeing Red...Or Saw it Once...

Tue, 06/06/2017 - 8:23pm by LibraryLiz

This one time at the library...there was that book you saw on a shelf, with a red cover, that piqued your interest - but, for whatever reason, you had to pass it by. Well now! If you find yourself hankering for that long lost spark of interest, I may have the book for you! I've recently been compelled to create a list of books that have, or have had, red covers - whether or not their most recent editions have red covers now, they did at some point! Plus, this list is welcome to all kinds of red covers...

Whether it be a fire-engine red of the debut novel Push, a pinkish-red hue of the biography Georgia, or perhaps an orange-red of the best-seller turned film The Circle, all reds are welcome on this compilation list. But this list isn't just for the adults on the internets! There's also a wide age range available for the younger reader seeing red...

Be it from the Teen section like Ruby Red, The Burning Bridge, or maybe Eldest this list has many red hot reads that you might have left on the shelf for a later date. Even the youth may have left an enchanting book resting on it's display, such as The Battle of the Labyrinth. This list also provides you with options from every genre in the library...

Maybe you were browsing through Science Fiction and found Red Rising or Ready Player One? Could have been possibly perusing Mystery and seen False Picture on the shelf? What about the non-fiction readers, who may have browsed through the stacks seeing covers that advertised career development or scientific marvels!

This list has ALL THE THINGS (or would like to have) and is growing each day!!! Please feel free to take a look, and make comments of other red-covered books you think others may be searching for, so the list can continue to grow! Just think: someone out there could be looking for a red-covered jacket that you've read before - maybe you have the answer they've been looking for as the search the numerous volumes we have here at AADL. Or perhaps you yourself have been searching, and the book is in this list already!!! Only one way to find out!